Tracks In The Dust

A Father's Advice About Learning the Mission of Life

Archive for the month “August, 2014”

25 Aug 2014

Schmaltzy Movies

Since I was probably old enough to change the TV channel on our family TV I have loved movies.

I guess I am going to turn in my “man card” to admit this: I love schmaltzy movies. Rom-com’s. Romantic comedies. I know that when I was a kid it was so easy to turn on the TV and work to find those Tracy/Hepburn classics, or Thin Man movies. Gable/Lombard, Astaire/Grable,,,the list of old movies goes on. My first fave movie of the era gone-by “It Happened One Night” was (is) one of those movies I can watch again and again.

But I am just as likely to scan the hundreds of channels today and find one that tweaks that old memory. And I am inclined to stop I guess. Whether it is old or contemporary. It is just in me.

“Love Actually ” (another one of my all time faves) just stops me cold and have to watch some/all of it. I know it is more like a holiday movie, but I am just stuck liking it. Or When Harry Met Sally, or Notting Hill, or Runaway Bride, You’ve Got Mail,or….you get the idea. That doesn’t even include the 60’s movies romping through hi-jinx and crazy situations, with stars as that can range from Sinatra to Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson.

So yeah, Julia Roberts movies, Hugh Grant, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, and all that lot. Just the same to me there are stars of the 30’s and 40’s that were just great too… Once again you get the idea. I am a sucker. So many more. Old and new. Great sound tracks; inevitable endings where the “meet-cute” is over and the wrap up is forever bliss.

My wife chuckles when I stop and dwell on the Rom-com movies. Some end sad, some end with a head scratch, But any way, it is always great stuff. Heck- as part of my college degree (Communications/Media) we had CLASSES about movies. Bliss.

So put me up for the hours of wasted time I guess. Watching those movies. It is like hearing a great song or reading a great book, you want to listen to it or read it again. Movies are like that… just suspend everything else for a small bit of time and enjoy them.

Whew… I feel better. A confession of sorts (except for my immediate family who already knows this weird obsession and lives with it). Someday I will get over it…. perhaps.

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Arts and Entertainment, choices, Classic Movies, Happiness, Movies, Rom Com, Romantic Comedies

21 Aug 2014

The Countdown-Clock

In sports most of the competitive team sports feature some sort of clock. A timed segment in which to complete a game, take a shot, play a play, complete a period or quarter.

In life we have our own count-down clock, but it doesn’t show up on the bottom of any screen or on any scoreboard. It is our clock that only God knows.

There is no visible way for us track things. No way to take for granted that we have enough time to do the things we want, or to manage a disease to its inevitable end. But still many of us worry about how much time we have, what can we do with it before the end arrives.

I guess for me – now more than ever, occupying every hour with the worry of the future is seems way too consuming. It’s a course that leaves more emptiness than fulfillment. It leads to fear and hopelessness ( since we can influence but not control the final outcome).

There are clocks that we will have to measure daily life we cannot ignore, but we need to understand the bigger life’s meaning and understand the personal clocks we live by. Spiritually we are in need of that center.

So my time on that “personal shot clock” is measured by finding ways to enjoy the passage of time, open my heart to the love around me, look for the positive in things ( the negatives seem so much easier to find us regardless of whether we are looking for it or not- doesn’t it?)

Advice to my kids: Learn to know your internal clock and what is truly valuable time

Posted in Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, Anger Management, choices, Doubt, Grace, life is precious, mental-health, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, Religion and Spirituality, Self-Awareness, Sprituality

15 Aug 2014

Being At Peace

To be at peace with yourself takes the effort. It takes a path you are willing to follow to get there.

It takes a resistance to fear, to the evil that comes from every aspect of life it would seem these days.

But with the latest catastrophic thing in our lives right around the corner, we can easily get preoccupied with the notion of not being at peace. At peace with ourselves, at peace with each other. A level set with life that only God can provide I would think.

But it starts with us. We cannot succumb to fear. To our anger. We must conquer it. Our fear of circumstances. Our fear of the world around us.

People do so many things that make me mad but
Angry isn’t how I want to spend what time I have
Cognitive dissonance they call it
I wonder just how small it
Could be made to be in me?

life in the city is so densely packed
fear of each other is an accepted fact
fear soaks into concrete just like grease
fear is the antithesis of peace – “TIme I Have” by David Crosby

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Mathew 6:34

It takes effort finding peace in ourselves with the “time we have” and the world around us. The opposite of that is to surrender to fear, to give in to the darkness around us. It will mean we may need help. It is there in many ways, we can help each other… we can look to Him for the help.

Are you prepared to not surrender to fear? To not let worry consume you? Or have you already allowed other things to take over your peace?

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged David Crosby, Doubt, Fear, Fighting Anger, Finding Peace, God, Grace, life is precious, mental-health, peace of mind, Sprituality, Tomorrow, uncertainty and doubt, Who Am I?, Who Are You, Worry

14 Aug 2014

The Music of Our Children

Thanks to all who were able to join me on the Internet radio show “How I Met Your Music” on Friday August 1st @ 90FM.org.

It was hard to cover over 50 years of music in just 3 hours, but hopefully I was able to tell the story of how I went from the music I first heard on the little radio above my mom’s Hotpoint refrigerator to the music my children have introduced to me these past years.

There is a lot in-between Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa, between the Ed Sullivan show introduction of the Beatles and You Tube independent music of Foxygen.

But it has been a journey for me and probably for a lot of other parents who grew up on rock and roll, R&B and Jazz influences and their children are still welcome fresh music to fill that need today. Mine will very appreciative of our “old” music, and even to this day keep showing me fantastic and talented new music.

So here are the last few songs I finished my show with. The music my children had a lot to do with when they were finding their own music.

The final song below was the song 3 of them co-wrote together recently. Just coming full circle from my beginnings with the British Invasion to this…..

Dashboard Confessional: Ghost of a Good Thing (Thanks to my son Adam) Maybe we can sing along some day.